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for the growers, acting as a unit, to instruct their shipping houses and 

 their Eastern agents to sell their fruits in one auction-room only in each 

 city, and to make these auction-rooms open and free to all. Let but 

 the growers unite on these propositions and the thing is done. 



During the past several weeks I have been in communication with 

 nearly all the California shippers and the Eastern receivers of Califor- 

 nia fruits, and almost without exception the Eastern receivers are in 

 favor of regulating distribution through the medium of a Bureau of 

 Information, and such California shippers as I have been able to reach, 

 realizing, as they do, the grave evils that threaten the future of the 

 grower as well as their own prosperity, have signified their willingness 

 to heartily enter into and support any plan that the growers may deem 

 for the best good of all. 



As an illustration, let me quote from a recent letter received from 

 Thacker Bros., of Chicago, who write: "There should be established a 

 Bureau of Information at Sacramento, corrected daily, showing to what 

 point each car was shipped, with daily corrections snowing diversions. 

 This would prevent flooding the market whenever some one market 

 showed better than some other. It has happened this season that forty 

 or fifty cars have been diverted to the same market by different ship- 

 pers in one day." 



Hart & Tuckwell, of Montreal, write: "Some arrangement should be 

 made at point of shipment whereby growers would regulate the ship- 

 ments and see that no market would receive too much fruit at one time." 



Seavey & Flarsheim, of Kansas City, write: "It is a feast or a famine 

 all the time. Regular supplies and regular markets would be secured 

 by intelligent cooperation through California distributing associations." 



W, A. Banks Company, of Cleveland, write: "We think there should 

 be one general headquarters, or Information Bureau, where all shippers 

 were compelled to report their shipments, or their contemplated ship- 

 ments, to different markets, so that each shipper would know just how 

 many cars of fruit are being shipped to different points, and so that, by 

 this information, the supplies to the different markets could be regu- 

 lated and gluts obviated. The over- supplies at different times is the 

 greatest enemy the shipper has, and there is bound to be a smash in 

 prices from which it is hard to recover." 



The Iron City Produce Company, of Pittsburg, write: "In our opinion 

 all the fruit growers and shipping associations of California should 

 be united as one, with one distributing head, which, we think, would 

 prevent to some extent the glutting of any one market. This is the 

 chief cause of low prices. There is not proper distribution; either a 

 market is very high or ridicuously low." 



H. Harris & Co., of Boston, write: " Some plan to -regulate shipments 

 to the different cities of the country should be adopted." 



A. G-rossenbach & Co., of Milwaukee, w T rite: "During the early part 

 of the season there was a constant over-supply of fruit in this market 

 to at least double the market's capacity. This was occasioned because 

 others were shipping here without proper judgment. The great error 

 was the lack of proper distribution, crowding some of the larger markets 

 and allowing many of the smaller markets to go without supplies. 

 These larger markets, by forcing down low prices, were able to supply 

 the smaller markets and to keep their markets ruling low correspond- 

 ingly." 



3-FG 



